When it is warm, they are silent and cease to flow;
When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’;
And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’

“Together they lie down in the dust,
And the worms cover them.

“A mother will forget him;
The worm feeds on him until he is no longer remembered.
And wickedness will be broken like a tree [which cannot be restored].

How much less man, that maggot,
And the son of man, that worm!”

“What a help you are to the weak (powerless)!
How you have saved the arm that is without strength!

“They pluck [and eat] saltwort (mallows) among the bushes,
And their food is the root of the broom shrub.

Then let my shoulder fall away from its socket,
And my arm be broken off at the elbow.

“Their light is withheld from the wicked,
And the uplifted arm is broken.

“Have you an arm like God,
And can you thunder with a voice like His?